Breathe
by nemaara
Summary: She never seemed to be able to breathe. But sometimes, that wasn't a bad thing. Oneshot - Raven/Jinx


Disclaimer: Teen Titans isn't mine

Someone (name withheld at request) was wondering how quickly I could write and challenged me to post a story a day for 2 weeks. After a bit of consideration, I said fine, challenge accepted...

All of these are going to either be Raven/Jinx or Raven/Robin (big surprise) and will have a range of moods and ratings, depending on how I feel on that particular day, or they might just feature Raven alone (and yes, Raven's in all of them because she's the best). Hopefully this will be a fun 14 days.

Anyway, here's the first one. Happy reading~

"Speech"

_Thoughts/Past_

* * *

Breathing.

For humans, the action meant life. Indeed, the very crux of life itself; that was breath.

So it was a bit ironic that a person like her, who was so filled with life and energy, often forgot to breathe.

Well, maybe not often. It was situational. But there was one condition in particular that always made her forget about everything, even the basic bodily functions of breathing or even thinking.

Actually, she could get away without thinking, and as for being self-aware, that just wasn't her thing. With one exception...

She remembered it clearly. The first time she had seen that violet haired girl, she remembered distinctly that she hadn't been breathing. Rather, she remembered that she had forgotten to breathe, or maybe she had forgotten that she had remembered to - never mind.

But there had been something different about her. Something so very unique... it was funny, because she hadn't been able to remember much about what had happened, except for what she had felt at that moment.

Suddenly, in a very un-Jinx-like fashion, she had been completely self conscious. Had she been laughing? Smiling? Was her hair done right? Was she slouching? Did she look cool?

She must've been gawking because Gizmo had given her a weird looking as she turned blue, having forgotten to breathe, and both he and Mammoth had rushed over to her, waving their arms frantically in front of her face.

But she was entranced by the sight of the other girl, from the darkness that seemed to swirl around her to the smoothness of her face, to the barely restrained emotions in her eyes. Oh, those eyes...

She thought she could lose herself in those endless pools of violet, the mauve that belied the stoic expression on her face, with the chaos brimming at their surface, pulsing up, then restrained again, chaos barely withheld. And each time, the girl would frown just a little bit, gaze downcast, and Jinx had thought that that look was so terribly, terribly depressing, and she thought that she might be able to understand that because she carried plenty of darkness in herself too...

Was it any wonder, then, that she forgot to breathe?

Or when they had first talked to each other. Not that useless battle banter, where they threw meaningless, almost _flirting _insults toward each other, because why the hell not? It made everything more fun.

But when Raven had first talked, calmly, like they were just friends, she had forgotten to breathe too.

There was something to that smooth monotone that was just so captivating. Okay, yeah, maybe it had sounded a bit boring when she hadn't been paying attention. Yes, she had definitely thought that Raven was the most boring person ever; like, who the hell even talked like that, without emotion or any sort of inflection at all? Apparently, Raven did...

But that was the thing. There _was _inflection. It was learning to read the other girl's expressions not just superficially, but reading into them. The slight pout that she had when she was being sarcastic - it sometimes looked like a scowl, but there was often a glint in her eyes that meant that she was joking, even if she looked ever so serious, but that was great because you weren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes anyway... or god forbid that she smirked, that meant that she was in one of _those _moods and trying to outwit Raven then was impossible...

And the exact same monotone when she was depressed, but her slouching posture, and the sheer look of despair in her eyes, crestfallen, abandoned, and it made something stir in her heart. Because she knew that feeling, the feeling of _needing _to repress all the pain and the feeling that she was doomed to be a monster, nothing more than bad luck, or a demon, but unable to let any of it out lest she destroy everything around her.

Or sometimes, her eyes shimmered when she was concerned, and it wouldn't be in the body language, but merely in the fact that she stretched a hand out, or did something, or just sat beside her, there as a comforting presence, not invasive or disturbing, but there as someone to share things with.

And _oh god, _the worst part was that Raven could shift between those emotions so quickly, within the blink of an eye, and it would be so difficult to read her, so difficult to figure out exactly what she was meant at any given time when she spoke, but that made her all the more interesting...

But the side effect of paying such close attention was that she forgot to breathe.

And so Raven had raised an eyebrow as Jinx had begun to turn blue and she had _actually _laughed when the pinkette had realized it and starting gasping for breath. She had glared at the violet haired girl, she knew, and it had taken her a moment to realize that it was the first time she had ever heard Raven laugh at anything.

_Oh my god. How embarrassing... _the first time she had heard Raven laugh, and it was because she had forgotten to breathe. And even worse, Raven's words that had followed...

_"You know, for a criminal, you're not very scary." _

Dear lord, what had her life turned into?

They had been an odd pair of friends for the longest time, even before Jinx became a Titan, even while she was still stealing stuff. It was probably because _Raven _was the antisocial and awkward one, because she was totally fine and not weird at all. Completely normal.

Well, maybe not. Sometimes, she had to admit that she was a bit weird too. Just a bit... but not awkward!

Yes, it was always Raven's fault that their conversations often degenerated quickly into silence. Awkward silence. Oh god, the terrifying awkward silence, in which she had nothing else to do but stare at the other girl, which was fine with her, but then Raven often caught her staring and she would smile, just a little, sometimes gently, sometimes mockingly, and then Jinx would glare and she would ask _"what's so funny?" _

The reply, always. _"You are." _

But always, in that awkward silence, she never knew exactly what to do, because despite all of her normal energy and action, around Raven, she was never quite sure of what the right course of action was. Everything she did would have consequences; Raven had an eye for detail and an impeccable memory - she never forgot _anything _that mattered even a little bit. So she never knew what to do, and ended up doing nothing, except staring.

But then, one day Raven had filled in silence for her. Yes, she remembered it distinctly because it had been _Raven _who had done something first, which she had never even considered as a possibility. She remembered it distinctly, because they had been in Raven's room, where nobody else had ever just been _invited _in, and she remembered it because of what _Raven _had done. The thought of Raven making any moves at all, let alone drawing closer and closer to her, so very very close...

_Their lips made contact. Just briefly. Raven drew back slightly, biting her lip, looking at Jinx uncertainly. She did not respond._

_As usual, the pinkette had forgotten forgot to breathe._

_She stood there, staring at Raven blankly, as if she didn't realize what had happened. Or maybe she was thinking? She didn't even know. It hardly even registered on her mind that Raven had just kissed her. Had Raven kissed her? Wait. Had Raven... kissed her?... was this reality... what? She blinked._

_Error. Does not compute. Critical system failure. Shutting down in 3... 2... 1..._

_Yep, she forgot to breathe. But unfortunately, she wasn't quite a robot and still needed air to survive._

_Jinx began to turn blue, then an odd shade of violet, not unlike Raven's hair. The demoness stared at her oddly for a moment, then waved a hand in front of her._

_"Jinx? Hello? Jinx?"_

_Raven waited another moment, then touched Jinx's cheek lightly._

_"Jinx?"_

_The pink haired girl blinked. Once. Blinked again. Opened her mouth. And suddenly gasped, clutching her chest, feeling the air rush into her lungs. Her legs nearly gave way beneath her, but then Raven was there, holding her up, so very close, so so close..._

_"Jinx," she breathed huskily._

_"You... kissed me..."_

_Raven looked so terribly, terribly worried, or maybe guilty, or maybe sad. Maybe a mixture; she couldn't really decide._

_"I'm sorry. Should I not have-"_

_"No," Jinx replied, still a little breathlessly. "No. That was wonderful! I just, kinda, you know..."_

_And she felt so relieved when the tension from Raven's face disappeared as she realized that Jinx had just lost her mind for a moment, as she sometimes did. The slight frown at her lips molded into a small smile. "Oh, good. Because I was planning on doing it again."_

_Raven leaned in, pressing Jinx against a wall and the pinkette could feel a tongue pressing against her lips, working its way into her mouth, playing with her own tongue, and this time, she responded, pushing back, forcing her way into Raven's mouth as well._

_She still couldn't breathe, but this time it was because of the physical impediment blocking her - ah well, she didn't care at all. Not when she could do something as wonderful as this... why should she care about breathing then? Raven was **kissing **her. What could be better than that? Breathing was the last thing on her mind._

_But, she still ended up gasping for breath as Raven drew back a bit after a minute or two, her face flushed with color. There was moisture on and around her mouth, but she didn't seem to care at all, ignoring that as her chest heaved for several seconds. Jinx drew a long, deep breath._

_"Something wrong?"_

_"No. Just couldn't breathe."_

_Jinx grinned. "Happens to me all the time."_

Yes, that did happen to her all the time. It was a miracle that she hadn't suffocated yet. Quite a miracle, really-

"Jinx? Jinx, dear. You need to _breathe._ Jinx-"

And suddenly, that voice, _that _voice broke through her thoughts, and she was aware of herself again. Aware of a very uncomfortable feeling in her chest, pressing in on her body, and as it grew, she opened her mouth... and the air came rushing in. She gasped, the sensation of fresh oxygen rushing through her body, tingling at her fingers and toes, and she clutched her chest. After a moment, she looked up into Raven's smirking face.

"Thanks."

"Seriously..." Raven muttered. "If I come back one of these days and find you passed out on the floor..."

Jinx laughed. "I was just thinkin' 'bout how I never seem to remember to breathe."

"Oh god, the irony," Raven said in a monotone, but there was a twinkle in her eyes that belied any seriousness.

Actually, Raven was really fun to be around, if she liked you. It was just that nobody ever seemed to notice because it took too much effort to read into her expressions. Hell, most of the time, Jinx even forgot to breathe because of it...

"You're staring again," Raven said quietly, and Jinx blinked a couple times before drawing close to the violet haired girl.

"Is that a problem?"

Raven's eyes sparkled. "Not at all. As long as you don't forget to breathe while doing it."

Jinx laughed and brushed her lips up against the demoness's own. "Well, then I suppose it _is _a problem. What're you gonna do about it?"

And, without waiting for a reply, she kissed the other girl deeply, her tongue finding her way into Raven's mouth easily. She closed her eyes as Raven responded, and then pink opened, meeting violet ones as they continued. And her eyes smiled as she saw Raven's response.

_Nothing at all. If you don't want to breathe, that's your problem. Just don't pass out while you're kissing me. _

And she leaned in more closely, pressing her body against Raven's, feeling the other girl's quickening pulse resonate with her own. In the end, neither of them were breathing, but it seemed like in that moment, Raven didn't care either.

Who knew not breathing could be so wonderful?


End file.
